Saudi students to benefit from US sports scholarships

Riyadh, June 18, 2014

US-based Carian College Advisors has signed an exclusive partnership deal with National Scouting Report (NSR) to offer full US university scholarships to Saudi student athletes.

With over 4,000 degree-granting institutions of higher learning in the US in 50 states, Carian College Advisors assists Saudi Arabian students in their US university preparation and application endeavours.

Carian said it has helped students secure admission to many leading US universities, such as Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Cornell, Yale, Brown, Columbia, UCLA, Berkeley and New York University.

According to Carian, there are over 200 Saudi high school athletes that can play competitively at the intercollegiate level, including Olympic prospects, said its top official.

These students have the potential to play sports competitively at universities across the US, as well as benefit from full scholarship opportunities that cover the cost of tuition, accommodation, food and books.

Recruited athletes at the division I level are eligible to receive an American undergraduate education - which can often cost upwards of SR1 million - for free and secure preferential treatment by admissions officers when applying to university, revealed Peter Davos, the managing director of Carian College Advisors, and Rob Miller and Lance Easton, the directors of recruiting at NSR.

The agreement will cover outreach to student athletes living in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, he added.

"What make our partnership unique is that we will offer a combined service package that features both academic and athletic guidance. Unlike in the US, virtually all GCC student athletes are focused on securing an excellent education, as well as athletic scholarship and development opportunities," explained Davos.

"They are not strictly interested in athletics alone," he noted.

"While Saudi Arabia has many talented student athletes, they are largely unaware of the complex recruiting and registration processes required to play intercollegiate sports in the US, as well as how to best leverage their athletic talent to secure full scholarship opportunities," he added.

Davos said there was a misconception in the GCC that academic and athletic excellence must be mutually exclusive.

Quoting examples, Harvard University, he stated, had the largest Division I Athletics Program in the US, while Stanford and UC Berkeley sent 100 of their college athletes to the London Olympics, where they were able to secure 32 medals. "Also, Stanford students alone have won 224 Olympic medals over the past 100 years," he stated.

“We anticipate that dozens of Saudi student athletes will be selected to represent their countries in national and international competitions around the globe,” he added.

Rob Miller said: “We have chosen to partner with Carian in the GCC because of their strong credentials, track record of success, and American staff and focus. Together with Carian, we will help Gulf student athletes achieve their goals of playing sports competitively in US universities, in all major disciplines.”

NSR, in operation for over three decades, has over 150 staff members, and will dispatch scouts to the GCC to assess athletes' competitiveness and potential in major sports.

“We have helped thousands of student athletes and have the strongest relationship network with college coaches - as many of our staff are former Division I coaches themselves - and have a placement success rate of over 98 per cent,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service